PAstor's Blog

Christians believe in the Rapture, which is an English form of the Latin word rapio, which means to snatch up. The Greek word for this is harpazo, found in 1st Thessalonians 4:17. There are three views of the Rapture -- that it will happen at the beginning of earth's final seven years (known as the Tribulation); or in the middle of the seven years; or at the end of the seven years, at the same time as Christ's visible return. All Biblically-informed Christians believe in the Rapture. They differ over when it will happen.

I don't believe that either of the three views of the Rapture's time are part of essential Christian orthodoxy. All three views can't be right. But one isn't a God-condemned heretic for believing one over against the others. But I still believe that the Rapture will happen prior to the earth's last seven years. Here are five reasons:

1. Christ said that His return for us could happen at any time. Matthew 24:36-44. This could not be true of a post-tribulation rapture. Once the Anti-Christ declares himself God (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12), a finite number of days will pass. Just as the Jews were able to use Daniel 9 to count the years till Messiah's first coming, It will be possible in the same way to count down the days to Jesus' return. But Jesus said repeatedly that there was a return we could never anticipate. This indicates to me that the Rapture is something different from the second coming.

2. Christ said He would return in order to take all His disciples up to heaven (John 14:2-3). This promise of going to our dwelling-places in heaven is never fulfilled with a post-tribulational rapture scenario. In that second scenario, the saints join Him in the air then immediately escort Him down to the Mount of Olives. But a pre-trib Rapture, in which the saints go to their heavenly dwelling-places, fulfills Jesus' promise in John 14.

3. Paul said that the rapture was a mystery, that is, a doctrine previously hidden from prior generations (1 Cor. 15:51). So it is not surprising that it is a comparatively less-pronounced truth than the second coming. There is not a word about a rapture in the Old Testament scriptures. The pre-trib Rapture needs to be integrated backward into the Old Testament's teachings about the Messiah's victorious return. This is the same principle as when we integrate our current time of Gentile evangelization back into the OT prophecies of Israel's predicted blessings. Because the Rapture was a mystery truth previously hidden, I understand why it's timing must be drawn out by comparing Scripture to Scripture, in other words, by inferences.

4. The early Christians believed Christ could have returned in their own lifetime (1 Corinthians 1:7, Thessalonians 1:10), even though many of the conditions of the end-times were not in place (2 Thess. 2:1-5). They could not have believed this if the Rapture was to happen at the end of the tribulation period. Contrary to liberal accusations of error, the Christians did not believe that Jesus most definitely was going to return in their own lifetime, but that He might. That belief of Christ's imminent, possible return is consistent with the teaching of an any-moment Rapture.

5. The Bible predicts a populated earth, including little children and the elderly, during Jesus' glorious reign (Zechariah 8:4-6). This is not possible with a post-trib rapture. In a post-trib rapture scenario, all believers would be resurrected or instantly transformed, and all unbelievers will be destroyed (2 Th. 1:7-10). This would leave the earth empty of mortal beings. But Zechariah predicts a redeemed Jerusalem bursting with playing children and content older folk. The pre-trib rapture allows for mortal believers to be gathered from every corner of the world (Matt. 24:31) and welcomed into Jesus' kingdom (Matthew 25:34).

There are "proofs" of a pre-trib Rapture that I don't think are all that solid, such as Revelation 3:10. Since I see zero evidence that the Revelation letters represent time-periods in church history, and because Christ's promise was based on faithfulness, Christ's promise to the Philadelphian church must have been for them alone, and was already fulfilled in some way. Also, the Bible's distinction between Israel and the Body of Christ in itself doesn't prove that God can't work with both at the same time. But I am content with the reasons I see.